People Are Taking Longer To Upgrade Their Old Phones, And That Spells Trouble For The Mobile Industry

The upgrade cycle is the frequency with which people ditch older phones for newer ones.

All the various, interrelated pieces of the mobile ecosystem work very well together if consumers have the latest technology in their hands. But when the upgrade cycle starts to sputter, the main engines for growth begin to fall apart very quickly.

That's what's happening now. In the U.S., the smartphone upgrade cycle has steadily gotten longer over the years, and reached 22 months in 2012, according to Recon Analytics.

Carriers rely on new phones that are compatible with their ultra-fast 4G wireless networks in order to encourage high rates of data consumption and boost data revenue.

Tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google pre-load the latest versions of their mobile operating systems on new smartphone models, and these handsets help push consumer adoption of the new software. This is particularly important for Google's Android platform, which historically has had trouble getting its users to update to new versions.